User blog:Waldere/Learn a New Word
A few weeks ago, I won the "Learn a new word" challenge hosted by the Sedulous Sesquipedelians guild. As someone who enjoys expanding their vocabulary, I was proud to win it, and glad for the motivation to make self-development a routine part of my day. However, I've noticed a pattern whenever I try to bolster my vocabulary: I look up the word once (content that I'll remember it), forget its precise meaning or forget it exists entirley, and resort once again to simple thesaurus swapping. I'm sick of it. I don't want to "learn" new words; I want to learn them. In order to break my cycle, I used the "Notes" function of the challenge daily to keep an ongoing list of the words I'd learned. Every day, before checking off the daily, I would review the list to see how many words I actually remembered. If I couldn't give its definition, I looked it up again. Only once I'd satisfied myself about every item on the list would I add the new one I'd found and check off the daily. That system works reasonably well, but it could work even better. Which brings me to why I'm writing this blog post. Nothing cements one's understanding of a word like actually using it, which is where I've so often fumbled in the past. The joy of learning obscure words is that you can name things you may not even have been able to adequately conceptualize before, thus growing your ability to think and perceive. The challenge is that their utility is often limited, thus meaning the opportunities to use them (and thereby reinforce your understanding of them) are equally limited. To help overcome that obstacle, I'm going to use this blog post to keep track of the words I've learned, as well as sample sentences to practice my understanding of them. The redundancy with my other list certainly won't hurt in terms of memorizing them, but the real benefit will be my ability to use them. Updating this blog post will be an ongoing project. I'll start adding the words already on my list, then update it every now and then with new words and new examples. This time, I'm serious about truly expanding my vocabulary, instead of merely peeking beyond its borders. I hereby dedicate this list to all my fellow logonauts: may your lexicons burst with babbling bijous culled from your linguistic excavations. Anagogic (adj.): 'allegorical or spiritual interpretation, especially of a sacred work like the Bible; a spiritual application of words : ''"I read Life of Pi as a straight adventure story, but my friend took a more anagogic reading, seeing it as a novel about the importance of stories themselves." 'Skybosh (n.): '''tomfoolery; practical joking : ''"When all the children in the club have assembled, that treehouse becomes a veritable snuggery of skybosh." 'Sedulous (adj.): '''diligent in application; carefully maintained; persevering : ''"The spy's sedulous subterfuge secured her team's success." 'Bumwhush (n.): '''ruin and obscurity : ''"Once a darling up-and-coming actor, his career mismanagement had led him to his current state of bumwhush." 'Verklempt (adj.): '''the state of being overcome with emotion : ''"WHAT?! I wasn't expecting this! I wasn't expecting this at all! I'm completely verklempt!" '''Musophobe (n.): one who hates poetry : "There was no way a musophobe like Rebecca would've come to the open mic poetry night with us." Scurf (n.): 'the shreds of skin constantly exfoliated from the epidermis; flaky or scaly crust on a surface : ''"Desperate to be a member, he clung like scurf to their group until they finally scratched him off of their roster." '''Sardoodledom (n.): a well-made drama with a trivial or morally objectionable plot; a drama with a contrived plot and unrealistic characteristization : "This movie is the worst sort of sardoodledom. Given the level of craft on display, the film crew clearly could have breathed real power into the topic at the heart of the story. Instead, they opted for a trite tale that treats it merely as the story's backdrop, rather than the driving force behind it. So much wasted potential; that's the real tragedy on display." Mimsy (adj.): feeble; prim, underwhelming, and ineffectual : "His objections, so raw and righteous when first they formed, became mimsy beneath the cold gaze of the administrator he now had to deliver them to." Eroteme (n.): 'a rhetorical question; a mark indicating a question (i.e., a question mark) : ''"Wish to know something more? That's what an eroteme's for!" '''Schuss (v.): to run down a hill at full speed : "Ignoring the dangers of tripping, Janet schussed down the hill to escape the more visceral danger chasing her." Cibate (v.): to take food; (alchemy) to feed material into a crucible : "Ah, breakfast! If I pass on my morning cibation, how can I transmute myself from a groggy lump of lead to the golden being I usually am?" Desideratum (n.): 'something wanted or needed : ''"Each morn, the same desideratum: / To wake up early (up and at 'em!). / But each morn the same return: / Woken by the high sun's burn." 'Blatherskite (n.): '''an overly talkative person : ''"Those abominable blatherskites are ruining the movie." '''Shrumpsed (adj.): the state of being beaten at a game : "Shrumpsed at Guitar Hero?! But... but that's my specialty..." Eximious (adj.): 'distinguished; eminent; excellent : ''"Such an eximious guest had never before graced their humble home." '''Maieutic (adj.): producing knowledge or insight through steady interrogation marked by an insistence on logical reasoning : "I slowly realized that she wasn't tying me up with all these questions - she was maieutically threading me along." Schatzi (n.): sweetheart; darling : "Drunk celebs are the schatzis of the paparazzi." Gilly-gaupus (n.): a stupid, awkward person : "Given how nervous she was, it only took a few moments after taking the podium to go from great speaker to gilly-gaupus." Nocent (adj.): guilty; the opposite of innocent. : "'What? I didn't go out last night,' he said, with a nocent quaver in his voice." Misoneism (n.): 'hatred or dislike of what is new or represents change. '''Boffin (n.): '(British slang, complimentary) a scientist or engineer; someone involved with technical or scientific work : "The eggheads in our department said there was no way to build functioning prototypes with the parts we had available. Then the boffins built them anyway." '''Logolepsy (n.): '''an obsession with words : ''"Every time I find a new source of obscure language, I fear I'll have a logoleptic fit.'"'' : "Her opposition to her daughter's desire to move is pure misoneism: she has no desire to adjust to a new living arrangement - a new life." Category:Blog posts